The representation of employees on the boards of directors or supervisory boards of French companies with the same rights and duties of other board members remains largely under-researched. However, worker directors seat on the board of both state-owned and privatized companies for decade in the French context. Moreover, this article argue that the renewal of trade unions' claim in favour of an extension of this particular form of industrial democracy has to be attributed to the rise of the discourse and focus on 'corporate governance' since the early 2000s.